How are the clouds done

[Bloom22]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone tell me how the clouds on this side's "NEWS" section are down?
(They can be found in any subsection !)
http://www.craftgrafix.com/awakening/index.html

How this effect can be realized. Which programs are needed for this. How is such a complex motion looped :confused:

:) Thanks

[Ricod]

I'm not sure, but I think they made two pictures generated with Photoshop Render Clouds (it's tilable ... ehrm, you know, you can use it as tiles).

Then they put them on a 3d plane. I think you can add a texture and then move them. Then you render it out to a set of pictures in a format which supports alpha values (so you don't have to constantly the background, as Flash can do it on runtime). Or maybe you can do something a little bit more handy in After Effects, I dont know as unfortunately I'm not familair with After Effects.

So, you'd need Photoshop, a 3D package of your choice (if Flash is your preferred package, you may want to look at Swift 3D also more gentle on your wallet compare to a full 3D package like 3D studio MAX or Maya) and maybe After Effects.

Maybe someone who knows After Effects knows if you can do this there and then render out a small video clip or maybe even directly as an swf-file ?

[Bloom22]

Thank you very much, Ricod :)

Do you or anybody know where to get a tutorial for such an effect or something similar related? I need more detailed explanations, because I want to do this effect myself.

Does anyone else have some comments on how this effect can be done?

[Headshotz]

I answered this here (http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?p=378791&posted=1#post378791)

[Bloom22]

Does anyone have some further suggestion how to do this special effect?

[mitr]

Well, I think they have got the clouds from somewhere, a 3rd party tool - which gives a series of cloud like images in transparent mode. Like PNG and GIF format. Then they put that as a movie clip on a plain Flash made space like static - graphic symbol. You can see that the background - space with stars, is static.
The real task is getting the clouds. I didn't try. But I think you can this from 3d Max. Use the "particle" tool in 3D max to create clouds, save it to a series of images(in PNG or GIF format) so that you can place it on whichever symbol you want and import it into flash.
You can see similar but great effects in another site that offers flash intros for purchase.
http://www.webdesigntemplates.biz/
on this site click Flash intros. You would find loads and loads of great flash intros. I am really amused by them. But, I am also sure they are using a special 3rd party software for the effects. Anyway, you would find your answer, with those flash intros.

[Headshotz]

Blender should work fine if you get around to learning it. Just animate a "3d Sheet" and apply the cloud renderer to it.

[Bloom22]

Thank you Headshotz, Ricod and Mitr for your suggestions. :D I will take a look at 3d max and after effects.

[ditt0]

You can do that in After Effects, you don't need a 3d software. Either use a sky plugin(like aurora sky) or make a fractal noise loop,add hue-saturation and some blur in AE.

[Headshotz]

I know that, but Blender is free. After effects costs quite a bit (I have it and it's great) and if it's just to acheive one effect then it's a fairly large price to pay.

[ditt0]

There's always a trial version on adobe site. Plus 2d applications are easier to use in my oppinion. And if you're after special effects for the web, then AE is a good buy. Amazing stuff can be done, not just "one effect".

[Headshotz]

Of course, I never said only one effect could be done. I have AE 6.5 pro and it's awesome. But if you had no use for the other effects, even though no-one probably does........ Ahhh whatever, I hate arguing. My point was Blender is Freeware, AE is a great idea though.